Shepherd, Nathaniel Graham (1835-1869) Artist, Illustrator, Poet.

Nathaniel Graham Shepherd (also Shepard) was born in New York City and grew up to study poetry there. Little information remains about his early life, but Shepherd was an artistically inclined youth. In pursuit of artistic growth, he moved to Georgia for a number of years to teach drawing. Upon returning to New York, Shepherd made his livelihood in the insurance business while still pursuing poetry in his leisure time. Among his better-received poems are "The Dead Drummer-Boy," "The Roll-Call," and "A Summer Reminiscence." Theater critic and Pfaff's biographer William Winter states that Shepherd's name is one among a list of "names that shine, with more or less lustre, in the scroll of American poets, and recurrence to their period affords opportunity for correction of errors concerning it, which have been conspicuously made" (Old Friends 292). Shepherd was given to card playing and strong drink, frequently passing his time in raucous and sometimes violent company. In a June 25, 1859 edition of the Saturday Press, editor Henry Clapp printed two poems by Thomas Aldrich and Shepherd. The two poems shared a title and some resemblances in the opening stanzas. According to Clapp, such similarities constituted “obvious plagiarism” and he admonished Shepherd not to try to publish with the Saturday Press in the future (“Literary Notes,” The Saturday Press, June 25, 1859). After hearing of the accusation, Shepherd wrote to Clapp “hinting at cowhiding the hideous little editor” if he did not withdraw the accusation. Shepherd’s friends Cahull and Arnold confronted Clapp in person and “bullied” him with similar threats (Gunn Diaries vol. 11 pg 83-84). In an “Explanation,” printed on July 19, Clapp recanted his previously accusations of Shepherd as “entirely unfounded” (“Explanation,” The Saturday Press, July 19, 1859) Shepherd continued to publish with the Saturday Press for several years. Winter names Shepherd as one of the Bohemians who frequented Pfaff's Cave and calls him "one of the most picturesque of human beings, a man of genius, whose poems, never yet collected, ought to be better known than they now are,--[who] was seldom absent from the evening repast, a festivity in which, contrary to general belief, the frugality of poverty was ever more clearly exhibited than the luxury of riches or the prodigality of revel" (Old Friends 88, 65). Shepherd was also later mentioned as one of the Bohemians at Pfaff's "gossiped" about by Rufus B. Wilson in a "reminiscent letter to the Galveston News" (Current Literature 479). Like fellow Pfaffian Theodore Winthrop, Shepherd served as a Civil War correspondent, penning accounts for the New York Tribune. Unlike Winthrop and Fitz -James O'Brien, he managed to survive the war.

References & Biographical Resources "Explanation." New York Saturday Press. 19 Jul. 1859: 2. G. J. M. "Bohemianism: The American Authors Who Met in a Cellar." Brooklyn Eagle. 25 May 1884: 9. Shepherd (spelled "Sheppard" here) is mentioned as one of "the best know writers who frequented that cozy corner [Pfaff's]," as well as a regular contributor to the Saturday Press. [pages:9] "General gossip of authors and writers." Current Literature. 01 Jan. 1888: 476-480. Mentioned as one of the Bohemians at Pfaff's "gossiped" about by Rufus B. Wilson in a "reminiscent letter to the Galveston News." [pages:479] Lalor, Eugene T. The Literary Bohemians of New York City in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Ph.D. Dissertation, St. John's University, 1977. [pages:16] "Literary Notes." New York Saturday Press. 25 Jun. 1859: 2. "Old 'Barry Gray' Dead." The New York World. 12 Jun. 1886: 5. Shepherd is mentioned as one of the "happy, careless children of Bohemia" who attended the "carnivals in Pfaff's cellar" (5). [pages:5] "[On the Death of N. G. Shepherd]." Once a Month. 01 Aug. 1869: 197. According to the editor ofAppleton's Journal "Only the Clothes That She Wore" are "tender and tragical lines [that] only just foreshadowed the death of their author."Shepherd took the lines to the magazine and "within a few hours after parting from us and receiving the price of his verses, he died from the effects of intemperance" on Saturday, May 22, 1869 (Once a Month197). The editor is said to have described Shepherd as "a well contributor to the magazines, and as a writer of fluent and often excellent poems, and distinguished in New York circles as a representative Bohemian" (Once a Month 197). [pages:197] Rawson, A. L. "A Bygone Bohemia." Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. 01 Jan. 1896: 96-107. [pages:103] Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Knopf, 1995. 671 p. Also known by his initials N.G.; was a picturesque poet (377). [pages:377] Stansell, Christine. "Whitman at Pfaff's: Commercial Culture, Literary Life and New York Bohemia at Mid-Century." Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 10.3 (1993): 107-126. He is listed as one of the Pfaffian writers that "have fallen into obscurity." Stansell wonders how much influence these writers weilded on Whitman's literary career (108). As one of the "Pfaffian regulars" who did "serious writing along with journalism", Shephard wrote poetry (114). [pages:108,114] Starr, Louis Morris. Bohemian Brigade; Civil War Newsmen in Action. New York: Knopf, 1954. Shepherd traveled with Sypher, a reporter for the Tribune, who was following the Army's movements after Fredericksburg.In listing Sypher's party, Starr inlcudes "Shepherd, a poet described by a collegue as 'dignified and doleful'" (197).The party witnessed the battle at Chancellorsville and their safety seemed to be in question for the duration of the battle.Sypher wrote a scathing criticism of the battle and the General, "Fighting Joe" Hooker, that the Tribune dissociated itself from.Hooker ordered Sypher's arrest and Shepherd "was told by his staff that criticism would have consequences ugly for the critic."Sheperherd wrote about this threat to Gay in a letter dated May 15,1863.After the battle and the recovery of his reporters, Gay, managing editor of the Tribune said to Shepherd "you betray want of energy, celerity, aptness to comprehend military movements and ability to report them" (200). June 20,1863, Shepherd was arrested on Gen. Hooker's orders for what he claimed was "a very innocent letter" and was "ordered out of the army" (204). Shepherd was among the Tribune staff present at Gettysburg (210).During the battle, Shepherd lost touch with the other Tribune men, like Gray, "and like him convinced that the paper was hopelessly beaten, had no horse and remained on the field" (216). [pages:197,198,200,204,210,216] Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume V, Pickering-Sumter. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. Brief biographical information for Shepherd including his role as a war correspondent, poet, and teacher. [pages:495] Winter, William. Old Friends; Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1909. He is listed by Winter as one of the Bohemians who frequented Pfaff's Cave (88). Winter praises Shepherd's talent (65). [pages:65,88,292]